Be clearer over emergency coronavirus funds, councils say

The County Councils Network has urged the government to provide clarity on how much individual authorities will receive from the government’s latest £1.6 billion of emergency funding.

Although it was announced earlier this month, the government is yet to announce how this funding will be distributed to councils, with fears growing that stretched social care budgets could receive less resources.

New analysis reveals that due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the 36 county and unitary authorities CCN represent initially estimate they will need to provide care and nursing home providers with an additional £322 million to meet their escalating costs, with a further £259 million needed to meet increased demand for services and to ensure that the NHS has sufficient spare beds for virus victims.

Councils are also planning to spend an additional £71 million recruiting carers to meet demand, £144 million has been spent on activity such as procuring personal protection equipment (PPE). Alongside this, an additional £138 million has been allocated to support the most vulnerable children during the crisis. These extra care costs amount to £937 million.

Despite this, county leaders fear the share of additional funding for social care could be lower than when the previous funding was announced at the beginning of April if the way funding is distributed is dramatically altered. If the proportion of funding provided to authorities responsible for delivering social care services is reduced when allocations of the latest £1.6 billion are announced, councils say they face unpalatable decisions to reduce support for life-saving care services and may be unable to meet higher care home fees being demanded by providers.

They also fear their capacity to assist in key areas such as ‘shielding’ the most vulnerable, care home testing, and meeting shortfalls in PPE supplies locally could be drastically reduced.

David Williams, chairman of the County Councils Network, said: “The government has stated that the £1.6 billion for councils, announced last week, has been provided to respond to the additional service costs faced by local authorities. It is clear from the evidence provided to ministers that social care is adding the most strain to council budgets as we battle the spread of the disease locally. If the government changes the distribution of emergency funding it will disproportionately and unfairly impact those councils responsible for adult and children’s social care, reducing the funding available for these vital care services.

“It is inevitable that government will need to provide a comprehensive package of measures to compensate councils for billions in potential lost income. This will require additional resources, but this should be a targeted and tailored response outside of the £1.6 billion allocation which is to address additional costs from the virus, and particularly those in life-saving care services and initiatives that will reduce the strain on the NHS.

“Alongside written confirmation that the government will meet additional costs and underwrite income losses, there are a number of other measures that ministers could bring forward to provide short-term financial flexibility, such as a relaxation of borrowing rules so councils can borrow to fund revenue spending and a suspension of section 114 requirements.”